I'm doing my TESOL course currently and have been assigned to do a lesson plan (eek eeek and more eeeek). I have to present it this coming Saturday and have 20 minutes!!!!!!

I struggled to get a topic going and thought, okay, since I like comparing, let me do comparatives and superlatives!

I'm still struggling with the following however:

1. Do I teach both the comparative and superlative or just one and then the other?2. How in depth do I go before it's too much for the students? What I mean is, do I tell them about good, better, best? more difficult, most difficult?3. For what level would comparatives and superlatives be? Elementary? Pre-intermediate?

I have a rough draft of what I want to do, which goes like:

Warmer:

Divide class into groups of three and play "River, river, bank bank" The group who wins gets a prize.

PRESENTATION:

Select three students (the winners of the prize) and ask them how old they are.“26- Greg, 18- Autumn, 29- Michelle”Write their names and ages on the board.Say out loud, “Autumn is 18 years old. How old is Autumn?” Answer: 18.Repeat it with Greg and Michelle.Ask the students to put the three in age order.After doing this, say, “Autumn is 18 years old. Yes?” Answer: Yes. Write old down on the board next to Autumn’s name.“Greg is 26 years old. Greg is older.”Write older next to Greg’s name.“And Michelle is 29 years old. He is the oldest.” Write oldest next to Michelle’s name.Repeat the exercise with the class repeating after:“Autumn is old. Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.”

Concept Checking:

“Richard, is Autumn the oldest?” “No, Michelle is the oldest.”“MJ, is Greg the oldest? No, Michelle is the oldest.”“Sholony, can I say, Greg is more old than Autumn? No. Greg is older than Autumn.”Greg, what are we doing when we say, “Greg is older than Autumn?”(Hopefully he will say comparing!) Comparing means putting two things next to each other/side by side/ and seeing what is the same and what is different.

“Andrea, when I say Michelle is the oldest what do I mean?”“Michelle is age is more than Greg’s and Autumn’s.”

Review: Autumn is old, Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.

Using the same students, and the same presentation we do“tall, taller, tallest.”“Michelle is tall, yes?” Yes.“But Autumn is- Taller”“Greg is the tallest.”

Do another Concept Check.

One more is done with ‘small’ and the students are asked what do they see as a pattern between all the words. This should elicit ‘er’ and ‘est’ and ‘the smallest, the tallest, the oldest’.

Students are then asked to come up with adjectives examples (we would do about five and hopefully one of them would have the CVC), which would be written on the board.HotBig

YoungPrettyAngry

Before writing anything down, elicit from the students what the comparatives and superlatives are for the list:

“Kevin, it is hot in Northern California. But in Southern California it is? “Hotter.”“But in the desert it is the?”“Hottest”

After this I write them down on the boardAnd explain to them the CVC as the HOT words.

“Words with CVC (what does CVC mean? C is consonant, V is vowel, C is consonant are HOT) why are they hot? Because their last letter gets doubled/becomes two) and then we add our partners/friends- er and est.”

I write down the spelling of the HOT words and pronounce them. I get the students to say it with me in choral. Hot – Hot, Hotter - Hotter, Hottest - Hottest.Big – Big, Bigger – Bigger, Biggest – Biggest

Then we move on to the next one:

Young

I say Young and point at Tony and he has to expand it to younger and youngest. If he gets it right, “Good Job!” Now, do we make the last letter two? “Noooooo. Why? It’s not CVC. It’s not a HOT word.”

Spell it on the board.

Say, “I gave Chris one dollar and he was happy”. “If I give PJ five dollars, he would be “Nicole?”If she says Happyer, I’ll say, “Yes!”Does anyone know how to spell happier?And I spell it on the board.

“Words that end with Y are magic words. The Y changes to I and then we add our friends, er or est. So, Happy, becomes Happier and then Happiest.” (write it down on the board)

Ask someone for a sentence with Happier and Happiest.

“Pete, what about angry? Can you give me sentences?”

Little Song:

Adjectives that end with Y are magic wordsWhen we compare we change the Y into an IAnd add our friends, ER or EST.To get Pretty, Prettier and PrettiestHappy, Happier and Happiest”

I’ve copied your plan and inserted my comments in various places.As a general comment, I’m not sure if you can complete all of this in 20 minutes.I'm doing my TESOL course currently and have been assigned to do a lesson plan (eek eeek and more eeeek). I have to present it this coming Saturday and have 20 minutes!!!!!!

I struggled to get a topic going and thought, okay, since I like comparing, let me do comparatives and superlatives!

I'm still struggling with the following however:

1. Do I teach both the comparative and superlative or just one and then the other?This depends on what level you are aiming at. Students usually study comparatives and superlatives for the first time towards the end of a beginner course and then review and extend at pre-intermediate. If you’re aiming at intermediate students, you can probably do both. At beginner level, just focus on comparatives.2. How in depth do I go before it's too much for the students? What I mean is, do I tell them about good, better, best? more difficult, most difficult?3. For what level would comparatives and superlatives be? Elementary? Pre-intermediate?

Again it depends on the level; same as above.

I have a rough draft of what I want to do, which goes like:

Warmer:

Divide class into groups of three and play "River, river, bank bank" The group who wins gets a prize.I don’t know this warmer and my only comment is be careful about timing. Warmers sometimes take up to ten minutes to complete. You say your lesson plan is for twenty minutes, so you need to do a very short warmer or maybe even omit it.

PRESENTATION:

Select three students (the winners of the prize) and ask them how old they are.“26- Greg, 18- Autumn, 29- Michelle”Write their names and ages on the board.Say out loud, “Autumn is 18 years old. How old is Autumn?” Answer: 18.Using real people and examples is an effective way to present the language. Personally, I avoid making a statement and then asking the same question. It’s not very communicative but it depends on how your trainer has advised you to present the language.

Repeat it with Greg and Michelle.Ask the students to put the three in age order.After doing this, say, “Autumn is 18 years old. Yes?” Answer: Yes. You can make this into a question.

Write old down on the board next to Autumn’s name.“Greg is 26 years old. Greg is older.”Write older next to Greg’s name.“And Michelle is 29 years old. He is the oldest.” Write oldest next to Michelle’s name.Repeat the exercise with the class repeating after:“Autumn is old. Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.”This is fine as a method of presenting. The only issue is that Autumn is not old. I suggest you choose a different adjective; maybe young.

Concept Checking:

“Richard, is Autumn the oldest?” “No, Michelle is the oldest.”“MJ, is Greg the oldest? No, Michelle is the oldest.”“Sholony, can I say, Greg is more old than Autumn? No. Greg is older than Autumn.”Greg, what are we doing when we say, “Greg is older than Autumn?”(Hopefully he will say comparing!) Comparing means putting two things next to each other/side by side/ and seeing what is the same and what is different.This is good.

“Andrea, when I say Michelle is the oldest what do I mean?”“Michelle is age is more than Greg’s and Autumn’s.”

Review: Autumn is old, Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.

Using the same students, and the same presentation we do“tall, taller, tallest.”“Michelle is tall, yes?” Yes.“But Autumn is- Taller”“Greg is the tallest.”

Do another Concept Check.

One more is done with ‘small’ and the students are asked what do they see as a pattern between all the words. This should elicit ‘er’ and ‘est’ and ‘the smallest, the tallest, the oldest’.

Students are then asked to come up with adjectives examples (we would do about five and hopefully one of them would have the CVC), which would be written on the board. (I don’t know what a CVC is, and can’t comment on this).HotBig

YoungPrettyAngry

Before writing anything down, elicit from the students what the comparatives and superlatives are for the list:

I’m not sure that your prompts below will actually elicit the target language. You should think of other prompts.“Kevin, it is hot in Northern California. But in Southern California it is? “Hotter.”“But in the desert it is the?”“Hottest”

After this I write them down on the boardAnd explain to them the CVC as the HOT words.

“Words with CVC (what does CVC mean? C is consonant, V is vowel, C is consonant are HOT) why are they hot? Because their last letter gets doubled/becomes two) and then we add our partners/friends- er and est.”I don’t know what age group you’re aiming this at. The language used in the explanation could be more grammatical.

I write down the spelling of the HOT words and pronounce them. I get the students to say it with me in choral. Hot – Hot, Hotter - Hotter, Hottest - Hottest.Big – Big, Bigger – Bigger, Biggest – BiggestYou could also work on pronunciation in the earlier stages.

Then we move on to the next one:

Young

I say Young and point at Tony and he has to expand it to younger and youngest. If he gets it right, “Good Job!” Now, do we make the last letter two? “Noooooo. Why? It’s not CVC. It’s not a HOT word.”

Spell it on the board.

Say, “I gave Chris one dollar and he was happy”. “If I give PJ five dollars, he would be “Nicole?”If she says Happyer, I’ll say, “Yes!”Does anyone know how to spell happier?And I spell it on the board.

“Words that end with Y are magic words. The Y changes to I and then we add our friends, er or est. So, Happy, becomes Happier and then Happiest.” (write it down on the board)If the students are adults, you could explain that words with y are irregular rather than magic. With children, magic would probably work.

Ask someone for a sentence with Happier and Happiest.

“Pete, what about angry? Can you give me sentences?”

Little Song:

Adjectives that end with Y are magic wordsWhen we compare we change the Y into an IAnd add our friends, ER or EST.To get Pretty, Prettier and PrettiestHappy, Happier and Happiest”This is good for children. Again, I don’t know the age group you’re aiming at.

PRACTICE

In groups of three, try and fill in the handouts. Probably better if the practice is a speaking activity.